10/12/18

Today we started a little different. We went to Dairy Queen instead of McDonald for breakfast because it was one mile closer to our camp and both were off route. We were pleasantly surprised. Dairy Queen was better. I had biscuits and gravy and others had pancakes. Both were better than McDonalds. We needed a big meal since we had a long ride ahead of us.

The road, highway 26, was rough in places on the shoulder. Some places didn’t have a shoulder and some places the shoulder was lower that the road surface. This last type of road led me to a somewhat major accident.

I was riding on the shoulder because a truck hauling trees was passing us. This was at about 19 miles into the ride, the shoulder was rough and as I said it was lower than the road surface. When I moved to get back on the road surface I misread the elevation difference and down I went. I hit the road hard. I hit my hip, my shoulder and my head. My left hand was also skinned up. The impact of my head to the road surface cracked my helmet. I got up quickly and Ed and Frank were there immediately asking how I was. I was dizzy enough that it was hard for me to walk so I sat down. Ed and Frank continued to ask me question to evaluate my condition. Frank wanted to call the van but I asked him to wait a few minutes so I could see if I could ride. After a 10 to 15 minutes I was feeling better and I was no longer dizzy so I told them I wanted to ride slowly to see how I could do. I did fine and continued to the first rest stop some 6 miles further down the road.

Once at the rest stop the leaders started their evaluation. They checked me out, looked at me and my helmet and determined my helmet had sustained major damage. Then they were concerned about a concussion. Of course they were asking me questions and suggesting going to a clinic. Other than my hip, shoulder and hand I felt fine. Our number one ride leader is an EMT so she checked my eyes, asked me about how the accident happened and other memory questions like who is the President. Since I didn’t want to go to a clinic they removed me from the ride for the rest of the day.

I can tell you riding in the van drove me up the wall. I wanted back on my bike but I understood the precautions that needed to be taken. By the time we made it to camp I was bored stiff.

Here is another example of how blessed I am in that I was not seriously hurt. Late that afternoon they cleared me to ride the tomorrow.